


begin again

by zrhueiao



Series: deanoru au collection [1]
Category: Runaways (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 19:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12660258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zrhueiao/pseuds/zrhueiao
Summary: comic-verse: Karolina is back on Earth and things are going to change.





	begin again

**Author's Note:**

> the new runaways tv series's trailer looks so good and I've missed my babies so much, so here's the first in a series (fingers crossed) of karolina/nico fics.
> 
> inspired by purity ring's song "begin again".

There are humans blasting at aliens and aliens blasting at humans. Cars go flying and are batted away like they're flies.

The air itself shimmers and flares with the combined energies of so many superpowered beings struggling for dominance in the fight.

Nico Minoru is a regular human. Well, not so regular considering her mystical powers but that wasn't the point. She can only think of how everything was going so well (negotiations! diplomacy!) until some hot headed fool started breathing fire. Then all hell broke loose, and now she's hiding under a monster truck trying to summon the Staff of One while thinking up a spell that would stop this idiocy. And being Nico Minoru, she has to think of a unused word on the fly in order to activate her spell, but she's currently staring at a grinning green skullface that's found her crouching against the truck.  
  
"@$&@?!" She screeches and the Staff of One falls reassuringly into her palm as she swings her arm to smack the Skrull right in their side.  
  
"Nico! You okay?" Teddy, bless his cuddly soul, hauls the Skrull by its collar and sends it flying. Nico hopes that particular Skrull has mastered the ability to shift into something with wings, or they're going to find themselves landing a state away.  
  
"I'm fine, cover for me while I think of a spell!" She dodges a giant chunk of rock aimed at her head. Teddy leaps to block another Skrull from jumping her. "Why are they all coming after me anyway?!" Billy dives from the air to intercept another golem shaped Skrull firing pieces of rock at them, teleporting the projectiles away with a reality warp.  
  
"No idea!" He punches it straight in its rocky jaw, powering his fist with magic and it falls to the ground unconscious. "Ow! That hurt." Billy shakes his hand to rid it of the jarring vibes. Nico does a duck and roll to crouch behind some rubble as another Skrull takes advantage of Billy's distraction to tackle him in the back and they both go flying away.  
  
Flying. Nico has to stop the aliens from using their aerial advantage when more than half of her team can't fly and the words pop into her head.  
  
"No flight!" she yells.  
  
The Staff of One flashes with power and all the flying combatants find themselves lying on the ground, all powers of flight negated by her magic. Nico tries to move away from her shelter and nearly trips over her staff, the rush of pure magic replaced by a dull throbbing in her temples. The battle only ebbs for a moment before breaking into an all out brawl on the streets on Manhattan again. Figures.  
  
She leans on the staff as she hobbles from behind the rubble, only to find more Skrulls surrounding her. They've got to be kidding, is this some kind of chase the goth day?  
  
"Just because I look like an easy target, it doesn't mean you should actually gang up on me, guys," Nico rolls her eyes at them. Her heart is pounding, and the throbbing in her head is almost as bad.  
  
"Lies of the witch!" The nearest Skrull reaches out for Nico and she's horrified to find herself opening and closing her mouth without any words coming to mind. "You will be subjected to the ultimate glory and purified by the light of the mighty goddess Zorr'Kiri!"  
  
There's a blinding blaze of light, expanding and swirling like how she imagines a solar flare would burn, if a solar flare came with the colors of the rainbow. This Zorr'Kiri person would be great at light shows, Nico thinks dazedly. The light is almost hypnotic and musical, and Nico feels like it's dejavu, the way she feels like she's looking at a painting she hasn't seen in years.  
  
"Leave her alone, Z'trak!" Even the voice coming from the light is familiar, and Nico frowns. Too familiar, in fact, but the pounding in her head won't let her think of anything else.  
  
The Skrulls freeze almost comically in place at the command.

The lights pulse a menacing dark red and purple right before pushing all the stunned Skrulls away from Nico, knocking all of them to the ground. It's a ridiculous display of power and Nico finds herself admiring it. It wouldn't beat the Staff of One in sheer versatility but right now Nico just envies having the raw power of being able to beat all her problems away physically. Even invulnerability would be great, she thinks, right before the grey concrete pavement rushes up at her in a blur.  
  
"Nico-!"

 

 

* * *

 

 

  
  
Nico wakes up feeling like she's eaten her entire supply of cotton wipes, with how dry her mouth is. She's greeted by the sight of white sheets and the hospital bedframe when she opens her eyes and Nico hopes she's not captured by the villian of the week again. There's a movement on her left and she freaks out, jumping out of bed. Her legs get caught in the sheets and she rolls with it, mentally thanking the Avengers for the mandatory combat training, bringing her fists up in a defensive posture.

At least she knows she isn't chained up now, even if her arms are smarting from rubbing against the linoleum floor. She takes a closer look at the person standing next to her bed and her jaw drops.  
  
"Hi," Karolina Dean says with a brilliant smile and wave. "Nice to meet you again, Nico."  
  
It turns out that while Karolina was away on the Majesdane/ Skrull homeworlds, a bunch of renegade religious kooks, offshoots of a religion worshipping a terrifying goddess of love, were somehow convinced that Karolina was the reincarnation of that particular goddess, Zorr'Kiri, and decided that as dutiful worshippers, they had to destroy all Blasphemers to protect their planet. Destroying Blasphemers, in this case, meant one particular Earthling, who had spurned the Goddess' gift of love and protection and in turn caused the goddess to return home to lay waste to her home planet in a fit of rage.

And so, they launched the sudden invasion of Earth to seek and destroy the Earthling, one Nico Minoru.  
  
"Sounds just like some of the crazies here on Earth, ugh." Nico scoffs at Karolina's tale, while reclining on her bed. She reclaimed her bed after calming down and confirming that no one on her team was hurt.  
  
"They're everywhere, that is true," Karolina winks and she's still so nice, Nico can feel her heart do the vague sinking thing that she hasn't felt in a while.  
  
It's been two years. Nico has no idea what Karolina has been up to this entire time, and she feels guilty that she never reached out, even with her newfound powers.

The voice in her head says, what do you do when your estranged childhood friend discovers she's an alien, both your parents are in a secret society to sacrifice innocent people for ancient gods, you end up having to fight for your life, and she confesses to liking you with a kiss, then leaves Earth with her alien fiancee?  
  
The thought of the kiss makes her cringe inwardly. Nico supposes that she's grown up enough to admit that she was being unnecessarily harsh to Karolina when she tried to kiss her. She still doesn't understand why Karolina would have liked her anyway, back then. Her title should have been Nico Minoru, Master of the Art of Being an Asshole to Everyone, when they were brainstorming for codenames for their newfound abilities considering how she was a self-absorbed emo goth asshole who snarked at the nice people who were trying to help.  
  
"That's an interesting set of thoughts, Nico." Karolina looks concerned now and Nico blushes, feeling even more of a heel than she was before.  
  
"I'm fine, you should've seen the rock that hit my head." Nico blusters before asking, "Now tell me how long you're going to stay on Earth for." She doesn't expect Karolina to be staying long, not when she probably has to go back to her planet and her marriage.

Karolina looks away before answering.

"I don't think I'm going to leave anytime soon, Nico." Karolina says calmly, like she's practiced saying this before, not looking into Nico's eyes.  
  
Nico's bursting with questions, but the look on Karolina's face is much too somber and Nico decides that no, she isn't going to pry. She will be a good friend for once, and settles for placing her hand on Karolina's, grounding her. Karolina jumps a little, not expecting the touch and settles down again with a look that's a little of surprised, a little of happiness and a lot of hope.  
  
 Nico holds Karolina's hand tighter, and smirks at her.  
  
"Nice to meet you again, Karolina Dean."


End file.
